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Greetings, 19th friends!
We are thrilled today to announce another new hire: Abby Johnston, The 19th's deputy editor. Before starting at The 19th, Johnston worked as executive editor of The Texas Observer, digital editor at Frontline and a senior editor at Texas Monthly. She is a native Texan who received her master’s degree from The University of Missouri-Columbia and double-majored in journalism and French at The University of Texas at Austin.
As deputy editor, Johnston will help oversee our editorial strategy, and write and edit stories for The 19th. Follow her on Twitter!
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Anti-abortion activists protest outside of Mississippi's lone abortion clinic on March 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
ABORTION FIGHTS
As states have moved to ban abortion procedures, citing concerns about the coronavirus, federal judges have stepped in.
- A federal judge in Ohio extended a temporary restraining order blocking the state’s ban on surgical abortions.
- In Oklahoma, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to grant a temporary restraining order against Gov. Kevin Stitt’s ban on abortions.
- In Alabama, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the state from banning abortions.
- The ACLU is turning to a district court in Arkansas to block the state’s ban.
- Mississippi’s department of health has ordered all elective and non-essential procedures to stop. Gov. Tate Reeves said he considers that to include abortions.
The judicial battle over the ban in Texas, a state with a long history of fighting over abortion rights, has laddered its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- It started on March 22, when Gov. Greg Abbott barred procedures that aren’t “immediately medically necessary” until April 22 as a means to preserve personal protective equipment, which has been in short supply during the pandemic.
- The state’s attorney general later clarified this ban extended to surgical abortions, except in cases where the patient’s life or health was in danger.
Abortion rights advocates quickly sued the state, eventually drawing an order on March 30 from a federal judge that blocked the state’s ban.
- The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling a week later, allowing the ban to hold.
- The same federal judge then narrowed his ruling, allowing medication-induced abortions and “procedural abortions for patients who risk meeting the state's gestational age cutoff for abortions before Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency order is lifted,” according to The Texas Tribune.
- The 5th Circuit Court then halted the part of the order that allowed for medication abortions last week.
On Saturday, lawyers for abortion providers submitted a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting that medication abortions be allowed to continue.
The constant changes have left both providers and women confused and “frustrated.”
— Andrea Valdez
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NECESSARY GOODS
More than 900,000 menstrual products were donated to women in need in March by the organization I Support the Girls, a nonprofit that provides feminine hygiene products, bras and underwear to people experiencing homelessness, impoverishment or acute crisis.
Coronavirus panic-shopping has led to a run on fundamental products like pads and tampons, causing shortages. “Periods don’t stop for pandemics,” Dana Marlowe, founder of I Support the Girls, told The New York Times. “And in times of disasters, like global pandemics, it’s easy to overlook the basic essentials folks need for their dignity.”
The federal stimulus act also addressed “the tampon tax:” Over-the-counter menstrual products will now be eligible for purchase using money from pre-tax health savings accounts.
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 What we're reading
Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden. The New York Times reports on allegations of sexual assault by a former Senate aide against presidential candidate Joe Biden. (The New York Times, April 10)
South Dakota’s governor resisted ordering people to stay home. Now it has one of the nation’s largest coronavirus hot spots. Gov. Kristi Noem has so far resisted issuing a statewide stay-at-home order for South Dakota. Now, more than 300 workers at a pork processing plant in her state have the coronavirus, one of the largest clusters of the illness in the nation. (The Washington Post, April 13)
Michelle Obama's voter registration group throws support behind mail-in voting push. With the coronavirus threatening to affect standard voting procedures, former First Lady Michelle Obama called for expanding early voting and access to mail-in ballots. "Americans should never have to choose between making their voices heard and keeping themselves and their families safe,” Obama said in a statement. (CNN, April 13)
‘The Woman in Michigan’ Goes National. Before the pandemic, few people outside of Michigan knew Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Now, she has publicly sparred with President Trump, has made Joe Biden’s vice president shortlist and is the subject of long political profiles, like this one. (Politico, April 10)
The City That Has Flattened the Coronavirus Curve. San Francisco Mayor London Breed acted swiftly and decisively when she declared a state of emergency in late February and issued a stay-at-home order on March 17, a few days before California Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a statewide mandate. At the time, she faced some criticism for the aggressive measures, but now her city — which has fewer than 1,000 confirmed cases and less than 20 deaths — has become a model for circumventing the worst. (The Atlantic, April 12)
Ruth B. Mandel, a Voice for Women in Politics, Dies at 81. Mandel, whose family fled Nazi Germany on the infamous Voyage of the Damned, served as the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, now the Center for American Women and Politics, for more than twenty years. (The New York Times, April 11)
🎧 Listen: Women across the nation have had to put fertility treatments on hold after the American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommended suspending treatments, part of efforts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. "At 43, I'm really falling off the cliff of fertility,” one patient told NPR. “It's just like, oh my gosh, this really could be the end of it." (NPR, April 12)
📺 Watch: “The whole world seems to have forgotten we are here.” Detained immigrant women talk about their fear of the coronavirus and its spread throughout the facilities where they are kept. More than 60 detainees and nearly 20 staffers have contracted the illness. (CBS News, April 13)
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JOIN US AT A VIRTUAL TOWN HALL: With people in lockdown around the world, reports of domestic violence have spiked, and survivors are struggling to access services.
Errin Haines, The 19th's editor at large, will join a panel of experts organized by All In Together to discuss how governments and advocates are addressing this issue. Register to attend.
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